Insight
by missmocha77
Summary: Itachi is approached by the god of death after his fight with Sasuke and is given an offer he cannot resist. AU. Takes place right after Sasuke kills Itachi.
1. Chapter 1

Sakura tended to the wounded man, sighing as he shuddered in his sleep. Wiping the sweat off his brow, Sakura pondered who he was, how he had gotten these dreadful injuries.

His whole face looked as if the flesh had been torn right off with bare hands. It was unlikely that he would recover without scarring.

Not only unlikely, impossible.

Cupping his face with glowing hands, she healed as much as she could at the moment then gingerly wrapped sterile bandages around his face. She took the unknown man's file and wrote a few notes in it, detailing his condition and treatment. Flashing the light in his eyes, she took notice of the sensitivity of them despite his lack of response.

"There's evidence of damage in his eyes as well," she muttered to herself. On a completely different topic, she realized that this man must have been quite beautiful before. Though his face was covered in gashes and generally fucked up, he had a smooth jaw with soft facial features. Brushing back the man's bangs, she sighed to herself dreamily, thinking of the man she loved the most.

* * *

It was dark. Itachi's eyes flashed open, and he blindly threw his arms around, gasping in panic. Was this what death was...eternal darkness? This was hardly different from his life, but Itachi would be lying if he had said he didn't expect anything different.

"Itachi, calm yourself," a low rumbling voice demanded. Itachi stopped struggling in the empty space, but his chest was still heaving, feeling waves of nausea overwhelm him.

"Do you know where you are?" the voice asked him, reverberating from all sides around him.

"Of course not!" he snapped uncharacteristically, though one could hardly blame him. Here he was in an unfamiliar realm where there was only a deep, creepy voice talking to him, one he could not even pinpoint.

"You are in hell."

Itachi stopped gasping for breath. He shouldn't have expected anything else. Of course he would end up here.

At least Sasuke was safe...

"That is where you are wrong."

"You can hear my thoughts."

The voice chuckled. "Of course. I am the master of this realm. I know everything."

Itachi was silent.

"However, it has come to my attention that you don't belong here." Itachi sharply inhaled. "You have committed atrocious sins, but your heart is much too pure for this realm of hell, anyway. I don't like having trash mixed in with all these wonderful souls here." A pause. "You also have something I have desired for centuries."

Itachi glared, or at least he thought he did. He no longer could tell. "What is it you want?"

The spirit ignored his question. "You see, your brother, the little brat is in trouble. I'm certain that Tobi has gotten his filthy fingers on him already. Oh, I do hope that when he FINALLY kicks the bucket he comes here. That is a soul I would love to torment."

"Get to the point," Itachi stated flatly.

The spirit sighed. "Very well. I will give you a second chance in life. No illness or anything. You'll even be provided a new body."

"What do you want?" Itachi repeated.

"Well, let me tell you a story." Itachi huffed in impatience. "Don't be snappy, boy. Here goes. I have desired the Sharingan for centuries. I even offer life in exchange. However, no Uchiha has ever accepted."

Itachi did wonder why. Life was a very reasonable exchange, especially if it meant not having to listen to this guy for the rest of eternity. However, even he was not sure he wanted to accept this offer. "You want my Sharingan."

"That's just what I said, moron. Goodness, for a proclaimed genius, you sure are an idiot." Itachi ignored the spirit's blabbering and thought upon the offer. Was it worth it? His Sharingan, though it was quite the curse, had become such an integral part of him.

If he could save Sasuke, then it was.

"I accept," he said with resolution. The spirit laughed.

"Perfect," it purred.

* * *

In the next moments, Itachi's sight returned just for a few moments, and he saw the most horrifying thing he had ever seen in his existence, followed by the feeling of losing his face.

Sakura had been alerted that the patient had started screaming wildly while he was still unconscious, his blood pressure skyrocketing and his heart rate out of control. He soon settled down as they had administered more drugs, but he still had not woken up.

She was stumped. They had found the man unconscious on the outskirts of Konoha, face down and unmoving. He was immediately brought to the hospital for emergency treatment. However, there were no records of this man anywhere. She checked his blood, his fingerprints...nothing matched. He could not be identified.

Just who was he?

* * *

Words: 826

Been a long absence, but I'm back for now.


	2. Chapter 2

Itachi woke up to a blur of pink and peach, a blinding flashlight shining in his eyes.

"-you awake? Are you awake, sir?"

Soon enough, Itachi's vision cleared up, and he saw a pink-haired girl staring down at him. Sakura, if he remembered correctly. Then he realized. He would have gasped if his throat wasn't so dry.

His vision. It was clearer than it had been in years. He didn't know if that meant it was restored or if it was just his own confusion.

"W-where?" he croaked, his body heavy. "Where am I?"

"You're in Konoha's hospital," the girl answered. "You've been unconscious for about a month."

Itachi's eyes widened as much as they could. One month? How had they not realized who he was at this point? He didn't think Tsunade was privy to the details of the massacre, and he doubted that she would be so kind.

His breathing felt restricted, and he reached up to touch his face. He felt the rough caress of bandages underneath his fingertips. "I'm bandaged?" he rasped, examining his entire head.

"Yes, you came in with many facial lacerations. I'm sorry to say you'll be scarred for the rest of your life, but they'll fade." Sakura jotted something down in her clipboard and then set the pen down. "Is there anything you need before I call the nurse?"

Itachi gulped. "Water, please."

Sakura smiled at him. "Of course. I'm on it." She took a foam cup at the side of the sink and filled it up. "Here you go."

Itachi drank it like he had been in the desert for…well, a month. Sakura walked out of the room, presumably to go check on other patients and call a nurse for him.

Itachi sat up as best as he could. He was considerably weakened, but somehow, he felt…better? He patted his chest and tried to muster up one of the old mucous-y coughs he so enjoyed when he had been sick. He hacked and sputtered, but nothing came out.

Were his lungs healed?

Itachi could barely wrap his mind around this. So that weird dream…it had been real? What else could explain this? He was dead one moment and now, here he was in Konoha's hospital. Perhaps when the spirit took his Sharingan, it had damaged Itachi's face as well. That would explain the cuts on his face.

Anyway, Itachi had to get out of here before they realized who he was. He had to go save Sasuke. The spirit had told him that Sasuke was in danger. With great effort, Itachi removed himself from the bed, only to fall face forward on to the ground.

A blonde woman came rushing in and sighed. "Shinobi, always so eager to escape the hospital." She roughly lifted Itachi by the arms and settled him on the bed once more. "You're not going anywhere, buddy. Not anytime soon. You were really injured when you came in. So badly hurt you were in a coma, in fact." She fluffed his pillows behind him, and Itachi would have been impressed by her manhandling if he weren't in such a terrible rush. "Don't worry, Nurse Ino will have you out of here as soon as possible. But I need you at least seventy-five percent before I release you, got it?"

"Who's Nurse Ino?" rasped Itachi.

"Me," the blonde replied shortly. Itachi groaned and let his head fall to the side. "Doctor Sakura will be back in a few hours, okay? She's got to ask you a few questions." Ino tucked him in tightly, and Itachi grimaced. "Don't try to escape again. I'll get you." And Itachi believed her. In his heart of hearts, he knew he was nowhere ready to leave the hospital. He couldn't even get out of bed without falling.

He would rest up first and recover as much as possible. He'd figure out what was going on outside the hospital, and before anyone realized who he was, he'd make his escape. With his plan fresh in his head, Itachi fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Itachi was awoken once more by a small hand shaking his shoulder. He wasn't pleased at being woken up, but he knew he'd have to play along to get his information. "Good morning," he croaked.

"It's eight in the evening," Sakura replied, a polite smile on her face. "I'm going to go over your history with us right now."

"Okay."

"You came in with multiple facial lacerations. Your eyes were irreparably damaged. You had multiple stab wounds all over your body. You're still recovering from those."

She took a deep breath. "However, your eyes are completely better. I have no way to explain it. The day after you came in, you started up a screaming fit though you couldn't be awakened. After that, you eye were healed."

Itachi knew it had been the spirit. It had kept true on its promise. Itachi wondered how these things worked. The spirit had known Itachi would take the deal – it had kept him alive until he had said yes to its proposition. How had it known? No matter, it had kept its end of the deal. Itachi didn't need his Sharingan.

Sakura continued. "You're going to need to stay here for about two weeks more. I'll work on your wounds everyday until I'm certain they're all better." She paused. "Any questions?" About his condition? No. About the outside world? Too many. However, he'd give at least a day before he started grilling her or the nurse about how things were currently.

"No," he said finally.

Sakura slapped her leg. "I just remembered. What's your name?"

Oh god. He had not thought this far ahead. He'd just go with one of his aliases when he was in the village.

"Takei Shinohara."

"Where are you from?"

"I defected from Kiri ten years ago. Tried to escape the war." It was believable enough. Ten years ago, there had been a ton of people running from Kiri to escape the violence. There were no reliable records left from that time. However, once he said he was a missing-nin, Sakura started giving him the stink-eye. He could hardly blame her; if she knew who he really was, she'd try to kill him on sight.

"Thank you. I'll let you rest now."

Itachi was thankful for that. Despite being in a coma for a month, he felt like he had not had good sleep in months. He knocked out within minutes.

* * *

Ino and Sakura conferred privately outside of the room.

"Takei Shinohara? Such a plain name," Ino quipped.

Sakura folded her arms across her chest. "I'm going to go through Konoha records and see if we have anything on that name. It sounds like an alias to me."

Ino sighed. "Sakura, you worry too much. I'm sure it's fine." She giggled a little to herself. "The man couldn't even get out of bed without face-planting. He's harmless."

Sakura raised a brow. "To be fair, he was in a coma for a month."

Ino waved her hand. "Whatever. Don't worry too much."

Sakura shrugged. "I just want to be sure."

"Do whatever you want forehead. Just don't get in trouble."

* * *

Words: 1199

Thanks for all the reviews and follows!


	3. Chapter 3

It was official. Itachi hated Nurse Ino.

"Come on, slowpoke. One foot in front of another."

Itachi clung to the rails. He said nothing, but he was frowning deeply. "I know how to walk," he shot back, but truth be told, his legs were weak. They were more banged up than he remembered from his fight with Sasuke.

"That's it," Ino cooed. "Come on, handsome. Itachi rolled his eyes but obeyed, staggering forward. He reached the end of the railing, and Nurse Ino clapped enthusiastically. "Okay, big boy. Time to go the other way."

Itachi held back a groan and shifted his body.

* * *

Sakura looked through the archives. "Shinohara… Shinohara… Shinohara… Aha!" She pulled out a file labeled "Shinohara, Takei" and flipped through it. It was an alias, just as she thought, but it was an alias Uchiha Itachi, a dead man, had used. There were, however, no details about the alias. It was wholly possible that she was being overly paranoid. After all, this was a common name across the nations.

She'd just keep an eye on her patient for now…

She hopped on over back to the hospital. She passed Ino and pulled her aside. "Ino, I'll take care of Shinohara's rehab."

Ino raised her eyebrows. "Why? It's not really customary for doctors to do it."

Sakura shrugged. "I don't have any more patients." Which wasn't a lie. She had hoisted all of her other patients onto Doctor Daru. "It'll keep me busy."

Ino wasn't buying it. "Uh-huh, sure. Whatever you say, Sakura." Sakura ignored her friend and knocked on "Takei's" room. Takei was sitting up and reading a newspaper.

"Mr. Shinohara, are you up?"

Takei put down the newspaper. "Please, just Takei."

Sakura forced a smile. "Sure thing, Takei. I just wanted to let you know that I'll be handling your rehabilitation from now on. Carry on."

Itachi's jaw almost dropped; not like it could anyway, though. Something in Sakura's eye was off – she was suspicious. Itachi muttered obscenities under his breath. She was too damn smart. "Wait!" he called out. Sakura paused in her step. "Could you tell me what's going on outside?"

"You have a newspaper," Sakura responded, pointing at the offending paper.

"It only tells part of the story."

Sakura sighed and pulled up a stool next to Itachi's bed.

"There's nothing I can tell you besides about Uchiha Itachi's death?"

Itachi feigned ignorance. "Who was he killed by?"

"Sasuke-ku – Uchiha Sasuke."

The one he was really interested in. "What happened to him?"

"No one knows." Sakura's said sullenly, her head dropping. "He's just…gone."

Itachi felt his heart start to pound wildly in his chest. Though he was worried about Sasuke, there was nothing he could do about it now. This was his chance to try and gain Sakura's trust.

"Did you know him?"

"Eh, Sasuke?"

"Yes."

Sakura took a beat and nodded. "He was my teammate."

"That's all?"

Sakura giggled nervously. "Well, I did have a pretty big crush on him, but you know, life goes on."

"So it does."

Sakura, embarrassed at disclosing so much, cleared her throat. "I'm going to be taking care of healing your face and the rest of the wounds on your body during your stay here. I'll, uh, leave you to rest."

* * *

Itachi was almost startled at the harsh open of the door, signaling Sakura's arrival. "Are you ready for your healing session?"

Itachi coughed. "Do I have to remove the bandages?"

Sakura gave him an inquisitive look. "No, but it's standard to remove them."

Itachi put up a hand. "Please, just…leave them."

Sakura rolled her eyes subtly, but she acquiesced. She put her hands on Itachi's face. He jerked back slightly but calmed himself, allowing her to begin the process. Her hands were cool on his hot face, and Itachi found himself leaning onto her cold hands.

"Are you sure you don't want to take the bandages off?"

"I'm sure."

Sakura huffed while directing chakra to her hands. "You're stubborn."

Itachi smiled ever so slightly. "So I've been told."

They fell into an awkward silence. Sakura had had enough of it. "So you have any siblings, Takei?"

Ouch, she just went for the kicker. "Just one. A brother."

"Yeah? How old is he?"

"He should be 18 now." Itachi took a deep breath. "Had a bit of a falling out with him."

Sakura grimaced. This turned awkward again. "I'm sorry about that."

Itachi shrugged. "It happens. How about you?" he asked, desperate for a subject change.

"I'm an only child."

"Must have been nice."

Sakura laughed. "I guess. It could be lonely, but my parents really spoiled me. Though that wasn't all too much of a good thing either."

Itachi gave her a half-smile. "I can understand that."

Sakura shook her head. "I remember saying some really cruel things to my teammates when I was younger just because I didn't understand. I wish I could take it back, but it's too late now."

"It's never too late," Itachi replied.

Sakura went silent and finished up the healing. They said their goodbyes, and Sakura exited the room.

There was something about that man that made him so uncomfortable. Something about him just made her open up and tell him things. She felt like she was twelve again, getting flustered over some dumb boy.

She was still certain that he wasn't who he said he was. Either way, her blabbering had a purpose – both to purge her feelings and to build his trust.

* * *

Itachi sighed. Though Sakura's suspicion was well-deserved, it was exhausting. He laid back and touched his face. He winced. It still hurt, badly. That spirit really had pulled no punches. It felt like his face had been stripped raw.

He was however, enjoying the perfect eyesight. It had been so long since the world was more than a blur. Now everything was more vivid than he remembered. After being so blind for so long, everything felt so new.

It was more than he deserved.

* * *

Sakura had trouble sleeping. Thoughts of Takei plagued her mind, and she felt uneasy. Everything had been so stressful lately.

She turned onto her side and squeezed her eyes shut. She was really stretching herself thin, watching Takei. She could barely sleep; he made her that on edge.

Before she knew it, her alarm clock was going off, and she groaned. A start to another exhausting day.

* * *

Tobi couldn't believe it.

Itachi's body was gone.

He knew he hadn't moved it and neither had any members of Akatsuki. Since his body was gone, that meant those precious eyes he had been saving were gone also.

How would he trap Sasuke now?

And more importantly, what had happened to the body? It wasn't like it could just walk away…right?

* * *

After a restless night and a long, shitty day, Sakura wandered into Itachi's room, exhausted and miserable. He could already tell that she was in a mood, and he was one hundred percent sure he shouldn't be here to experience it. However, there was no escape.

Sakura looked at Takei, just sitting there. That prick. "How are we doing today?" she said flatly.

"I've been doing well," he responded. "Dr. Haruno, are you all right?" he asked as Sakura put her hands on his face, ready to begin the healing session. Ever so gently, he took her hands in his and removed them from his face, and Sakura was surprised at how her heart stuttered in her chest. "You're tired," he said, and Sakura didn't bother denying it.

"I didn't sleep last night," she said truthfully. "Too much on my mind."

"Dr. Haruno, you should take a rest."

"Where?" she chuckled. "I'm still on call for two more hours."

"Here."

Sakura blinked. "Here?" What was Takei offering? "I'm not sure that's appropriate."

Takei shrugged. "I won't say anything. I can keep a secret."

Another sign that Takei was a shinobi in disguise, Sakura mused. However, the offer was tempting. "I should heal you first," she mumbled, the call of sleep already laced in her voice.

"I don't know if I trust you to heal me in your state," Takei teased, and Sakura snorted. "I'll let you know if your pager goes off."

"All right then," Sakura said. "No funny business," she commanded softly, lying her head down on the white sheets, Takei moving slightly to accommodate her.

"No funny business," Takei echoed, his voice a soft lilt. Sakura inhaled deeply. What the actual fuck? Even though he was in a hospital, Takei still had such a relaxing smell…When was the last time he even had a bath?

"Good night," she murmured, letting sleep overtake her.

"Good night, Dr. Haruno."

* * *

Words: 1449

Sorry for the long wait guys. I've had a long crazy year.


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